#ws merwin
Can I get used to it day after day
a little at a time while the tide keeps
coming in faster the waves get bigger
building on each other breaking records
this is not the world that I remember
then comes the day when I open the box
that I remember packing with such care
and there is the face that I had known well
in little pieces staring up at me
it is not mentioned on the front pages
but somewhere far back near the real estate
among the things that happen every day
to someone who now happens to be me
and what can I do and who can tell me
then there is what the doctor comes to say
endless patience will never be enough
the only hope is to be the daylight
With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning
so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
—W. S. Merwin, “To the New Year”
“The River of Bees” – W.S. Merwin
“The River of Bees” — W.S. Merwin
“The River of Bees”
by
W.S. Merwin
In a dream I returned to the river of bees
Five orange trees by the bridge and
Beside two mills my house
Into whose courtyard a blindman followed
The goats and stood singing
Of what was older
Soon it will be fifteen years
He was old he will have fallen into his eyes
I took my eyes
A long way to the calendars
Room after room asking how shall I live
One of the…
i miss you so much it hurts
w.s. merwin separation(via@lilllium) \ renee stout \ lorde hard feelings (via@lyricsilove) \ ramon haindl \ anna akhmatova selected poems of anna akhmatova (via@propertiesofjoy)
i miss you so much it hurts
w.s. merwin separation(via@lilllium) \ renee stout \ lorde hard feelings (via@lyricsilove) \ ramon haindl \ anna akhmatova selected poems of anna akhmatova (via@propertiesofjoy)
“Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.”
~ W. S. Merwin, “Separation”
[’84A - Atsuko Tanaka]
• The themes that preoccupied Mr. Merwin most keenly were those that haunt nearly every poet: the earth, the sea and their myriad creatures; the cycle of the seasons; myth and spirituality (he was a practicing Buddhist); personal history and memory; and, above all, life and its damnable evanescence. More: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/obituaries/w-s-merwin-dead-poet-laureate.html
• Atsuko Tanaka was a Japanese avant-garde artist best known for her Neo-Dada Electric Dress (1956), a garment made from hundreds of lightbulbs painted in primary colors. This iconic work, which she wore to exhibitions, functions as a conflation of Japanese traditional clothing with modern urbanization, bringing an unexpected and challenging interpretation to both. “I wanted to shatter stable beauty with my work,” Tanaka once said. More: http://www.artnet.com/artists/atsuko-tanaka/
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I by Pablo Neruda (tr. W.S. Merwin), from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Text ID:
Body of woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look like the world in your posture of surrender.
